So 3 weeks ago I had 2 blue (pitbulls?) come by one male one female, jumping at my 20x10ft cage trying to get in. Luckily I walked out there, they friendly to people, I told them to cut it out and go away, and they left. This afternoon between 2-4pm they came back and broke through the wire to get to the chickens, the one missexed rooster fought them to his death, and all the hens survived. I wrapped the bottom 2.5 feet of entry with stronger metal wiring to reinforce it. They came back at 11pm. (They leaped over after tearing through the weaker part up top). I had to let one out) First off hats off to a rooster that fights off 140lbs of dogs. (Picture below for sorrow). Second, I will re-inforce further, but what would you/should I do. My spouse wants me to shoot them, and I am very much a dog lover and believe the female dog was recently pregnant so I think they are out trying to provide.... I'm trying to avoid shooting them at any cost. It's Tennessee. She grew up here. Her mindset is it's killing our livestock, kill it. I'm very much re-inforce, and figure out if we can find who owns them and make sure they know what's going on... What would you do?
Rest in peace knight of the chickens
It's not just that the dogs killed your chickens. Aggressive dogs like that roaming free are a risk to people too. You did say they were friendly to you, but they might not be so friendly to a child smaller than them.
I don't know what kind of an area you live in or what kind of people your neighbours are, but assuming it's a suburb rather than the countryside, a pair of dogs like that running free twice is at best gross negligence from the owner. The first time might be an honest accident but a second time in a month speaks for different issues, and in my experience dog owners like that more often than not will not listen to reason. Worse, the owner could get aggressive with you.
So what I would do is, if the police or animal control doesn't have the resources to handle it and if the dogs come a third (or a fourth, or whatever your threshold is) time, shoot them, bury them, and never tell any of your neighbours. It's harsh, but given the circumstances, odds are high the owner is the kind of garbage person you definitely don't want to find out that you shot their dogs, no matter the circumstances.
Yeah, I was probably way to soft spotted about the dogs, spouse kept pointing out it was Halloween last night so small kids out wandering would have been predictable. As for where I live let's just say that stupid country singer a song about "try that in a small town" or whatever... Didn't sing it in his town, he came to our town to sing it in front of the court house here, there were a few people I know who weren't so happy about that.